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Military ban on openly gay servicemen and women banned

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)
July 7th, 2011
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

A federal appeals court has ruled that the government must stop enforcing the law that prohibits openly gay men, lesbians and bisexuals from serving in the military. A three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a two-page order against the policy known as "don't ask, don't tell" in a case brought by the group Log Cabin Republicans.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - A federal judge in California, Virginia A. Phillips, ruled in 2010 that the law was unconstitutional and ordered the government to stop enforcing it. That decision was then appealed to the Ninth Circuit, which issued a stay allowing the government to continue enforcing the policy as it made its way through the courts.

The policy was repealed by Congress last year, but called for a lengthy process of preparation, training and certification before ending it, and while the government has significantly narrowed enforcement, some discharges for openly gay and lesbian service people continued. While the Obama administration had advocated the Congressional repeal, it had also asked the court to keep the policy in place until the matter could be ended in an orderly fashion.

Judges Alex Kozinski, Kim McLane Wardlaw and Richard A. Paez stated in their order that "circumstances and balance of hardships had changed" since their initial ruling: the Obama administration had informed the court that repeal of the policy was "well under way," and in a filing in another case on July 1, the Department of Justice took the position that discrimination based on sexual orientation should be subjected to tough scrutiny. The government, the judges wrote, "can no longer satisfy the demanding standard for issuance of a stay."

"People no longer should have to wait for the politicians and the bureaucrats to certify that the military is ready for repeal," Dan Woods, the lawyer who represented the Log Cabin Republicans said.

A Department of Justice spokeswoman said, "We're reviewing the ruling," and had no comment on whether the department would appeal the decision.

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